Do you hate Auto-tune too?
I don't think I've ever heard of single audio tool that has pissed off more people. So what is Auto-tune? Why is it so popular and when will it die?
These days it’s hard to listen to so called “urban”, pop or country music for that matter without hearing some Auto-tune enhanced vocals. So what exactly is Auto-tune anyway? Auto-tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies that corrects pitch. You’ve heard it correct or distort the pitch of many from Lil Wayne to Mary J. Blige to Cher and maybe most notably T-Pain. Recently Hip Hop heavyweight Jay Z weighed in on the popular and hated tool with a song titled “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)“. The “controversial” single is pretty awful and Jay Z is Lay Z these days. His arrogance knows no bounds and his anti Auto-tune stance is more of a testament to how asinine his stands are than the scourge that is Auto-tune. So can Jay Z announce the death of Auto-tune anyway? I say we have to look at some of the reasons why it may have been popular in the first place before we can stick a fork in it.
1- Auto-tune is not only a sign of the times it’s the sound of the times.
The first decade of the new millennium is coming to a close soon and within my short lifetime we’ve been hurled into the digital age. Still no flying cars like in the Jetsons or teleportation like in Star Trek, but as M.I.A. said, “you can check your credit on your new Nokia”. What else should the digital age sound like? The synthetic, computerized sound of the times compressed into 3 levels of audio data in an MP3 for many of us sounds and feels like now. Think about it, you were going to make it into a ringtone anyway… well maybe not but this music is ringtone ready for your convenience.
2- Blame rap cause rappers can’t sing
It’s true, most people can’t sing and some of the people who can’t sing are rappers. I think they’re the ones people are most upset about using the controversial pitch corrector. That doesn’t stop them from trying to sing nor does it stop them from trying to make money off of their altered music.
3- “It’s the economy, stupid.“
That’s the famous phrase coined by Clinton campaign strategist James Carville in 1992, to remind the staff to address the fundamental issue that is the economy. The economic crisis has everyone pinching pennies so why wouldn’t record company executives and rappers lean towards what sells even more? The usage of Auto-tune on enough hits spawned a monkey-see-monkey-do frenzy that spread through the music industry faster than the swine flu in the U.S.. Notorious Auto-tuner Kanye West signed rapper Kid Cudi who doesn’t rap but “Auto-tune sings” on the hit song that got him signed “Day N’ Nite”. Auto-tuner Lil Wayne followed signing Auto-tune user Drake to his label Young Money. Also the financial aspect of today’s music landscape can lead rappers to collaborate with actual singers less so they don’t have to split the check or haggle with other record companies representing other artists.
4- We have a disposable culture
These days an album can be leaked ahead of its release date, then downloaded and deleted in less time than it would take you to read The New Yorker’s piece on Auto-tune by Sasha Frere-Jones. If your digital pictures of you and your friends at the Drake concert look bad you can delete them with the click of a button. Even the Swedish company that made the desk my computer sits on provides inexpensive and disposable furniture. Years ago things were built to last, now we have so many things that can be easily discarded. If it’s so easy to get rid of did it ever need to be of high quality anyway?
I don’t see Auto-tune dying just yet or T-Pain disappearing anytime soon. So these are some of my thoughts. What are your thoughts?
11 Comments
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Auto-Tune isn’t the only product out there used for this purpose - TC Helicon’s INTONATOR-TC, Celemony’s MELODYNE and others are available. Audio Engineers can do lots of creative things with these pitch correction or pitch shifting/bending programs but trying to make someone just barely “pass” as being able to sing isn’t one of them.
The magazine Sound On Sound (SOS) has an article on it:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct03/articles/vocalfixes.htm
This is a small symptom of a much larger problem with the drop in the overall quality in performance in almost all genres of music mostly due to trans-global corporation factors. If anybody cares, here are two books that break it all down for you…
One of the problems is that most people (the consuming public) don’t want to think about anything - if it has a good beat (depending on their level of awareness) they could care less how it was made.
They simply won’t invest the “time” and “mental energy” to examine anything (Critical Thinking) or to mentally step-back, find out what some of the issues are, and investigate their history - and the super big record and radio broadcast companies love them so much for being that way.
Madam Toussaint
Jun 18th 09
09:55 AM
There does seem to be a drop in overall music quality, at least in the genres I listen to and your point about “trans-global corporation factors” is interesting. I think different people “consume” music differently. For some it is something that aligns with their spirit, soul and the universe. For others, merely a soundtrack to their lives in the background somewhere. Thanks for the thorough and informative comment!
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